Fish and Boat commission addresses pair of boating issues

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Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissioners on Tuesday approved spending $65,000 to acquire a permanent fishing easement on 4,960 linear feet on Conneaut Creek in Crawford County. The section includes two parcels of property in Spring Township, just west of Rotue 18 along Tower Road near Conneautville.

The seller, who was not identified, has agreed to let the commission build a parking lot and create a footpath to provide access to the creek.

The commission is paying for the easement using money from the sale of Lake Erie permits. A new interpretation of the rule regarding that money made it OK to spend the money outside of Erie County, so long as the waterways are part of the Lake Erie watershed, commissioner Ed Mascharka said.

Traveling by Jeep, boat and foot, Tribune-Review investigative reporter Carl Prine and photojournalist Justin Merriman covered nearly 2,000 miles over two months along the border with Mexico to report on coyotes — the human traffickers who bring illegal immigrants into the United States. Most are Americans working for money and/or drugs. This series reports how their operations have a major impact on life for residents and the environment along the border — and beyond.

Board members took the first step to banning the use of “hydro-flying devices” — jetpacks powered by water that let boaters soar as much as 30 feet above or below the water at speeds of up to 30 mph — and clarified the rules regarding standup paddleboards.

The hydro devices, marketed under a variety of brand names, like Jetlev and Flyboard, sometimes work while connected to personal watercraft.

Others operate while hooked up to an unmanned, remote-controlled “umbilical” craft. They work by sucking in water and forcing it back out through hoses under high pressure, elevating boaters in a sort of Ironman-like fashion.

The U.S. Coast Guard hasn't taken a stance on them, leaving it up to individual state agencies to regulate their use, said Laurel Anders, director of the commission's bureau of boating and outreach. Those states are moving to ban the devices for safety reasons, she pointed out.

The commission is doing the same.

Board members gave preliminary approval to regulations banning their use on state waters. Public comment will be accepted between now and July, when the board meets again. Final approval of the ban could come then.

At the same time, commissioners changed the wording of their regulations to make it clear that users of standup paddleboards — which look like oversized surfboards that users paddle or pole — must have a wearable personal flotation device on board when paddling.

That's “nothing new” for paddleboarders, Anders said.

“It just makes it loud and clear,” she said.

What remains a little less clear, perhaps, is the other equipment paddleboarders are required to have when on the water.

If paddleboards are considered non-powered boats, commissioner Norm Gavlick of Luzerne County asked whether their operators need to have a light and sound-producing device, like a whistle, while on the water, just like operators of a canoe or kayak. The regulation doesn't make that clear, he said.

The answer is yes, Anders said.

Paddleboards also must have a launch permit issued by the commission or by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to use a commission- or state park-owned lake, she added.

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